By the time you read this, the football World Cup will be over: the trophy lifted, the flags folded away, the pundits exhausted, and the great global carnival already fading into memory. 

But the interesting part, at least for me, isn’t the result. It’s what the tournament reveals about us - about the way human beings behave when the colours come out, the songs start, and the sense of “us” and “them” sharpens into something almost primal.